Thanksgiving is know for getting togetherwith family and having a good meal.I love Thanksgiving even more becauseinstead of a traditional meal, my grandmamakes us this:

Nothing better than homemade, authentic spaghettiand meatballs. Throw in a little sausage and porkand it is a feast for the ages. So delicious. My grandma makesthis for Thanksgiving every year. And hopefullynext year she is going to teach me. It is a twoday process, but I think I am up to the task.

On another subject. I went to see Ohgr for the first time thislast Wednesday. And I will say the show waspretty cool. He is very theatrical. He came outin an amazing costume, and I tried to get a pictureof it, but my camera was not having it.Luckily, he stripped it off during the show, anddisplayed it on side. So as everyone wasclearing out, I went and got a good picture.

I enjoyed the show, especially since there weren'ta ton of people there. Although I wish he wouldhave played more of the older stuff.

Here's a video. Be warned, somewhat creepy.

Oh and if anyone is curious to know whyI loathe Christmas, this article sums it up.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

How can a free society reconcile the often competing values of democracy, religious liberty and the separation of church and state? This challenge was vividly illustrated by the recent controversy over California's Proposition 8, which forbade same-sex marriage.

In a democracy, the majority of citizens ordinarily may enact whatever laws they want. Some laws, however, are prohibited by the Constitution. For example, the majority of citizens may want a law denying African-Americans the right to vote or prohibiting Muslims from attending public schools, but such laws violate the Constitution.

Does Proposition 8 violate the Constitution? There are several arguments one might make for this position. One might argue that Proposition 8 discriminates against gays and lesbians in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. One might argue that Proposition 8 unconstitutionally limits the fundamental right to marry. One might argue that Proposition 8 violates the separation of church and state. It is this last argument that interests me.

Laws that violate the separation of church and state usually take one of two forms. Either they discriminate against certain religions ("Jews may not serve as jurors"), or they endorse particular religions ("school children must recite the Lord's Prayer"). Proposition 8 does not violate the principle of separation of church and state in either of these ways. It neither restricts religious freedom nor endorses religious expression.

What it does do, however, is to enact into law a particular religious belief. Indeed, despite invocations of tradition, morality and family values, it seems clear that the only honest explanation for Proposition 8 is religion. This is obvious not only from the extraordinary efforts undertaken by some religious groups to promote Proposition 8, but also from the very striking voting patterns revealed in the exit polls.

Proposition 8 was enacted by a vote of 52% to 48%. Those identifying themselves as Evangelicals, however, supported Proposition 8 by a margin of 81% to 19%, and those who say they attend church services weekly supported Proposition 8 by a vote of 84% to 16%. Non-Christians, by the way, opposed Proposition 8 by a margin 85% to 15% and those who do not attend church regularly opposed Proposition 8 by a vote of 83% to 17%.

What this tells us, quite strikingly, is that Proposition 8 was a highly successful effort of a particular religious group to conscript the power of the state to impose their religious beliefs on their fellow citizens, whether or not those citizens share those beliefs. This is a serious threat to a free society committed to the principle of separation of church and state.

The Framers of the American Constitution knew that throughout human history religious self-righteousness has caused intolerance, discrimination and injustice. They understood that religious self-righteousness is dangerous, divisive and destructive, and that it has led to untold ignorance and misery. It was for that reason that they embedded in our Constitution a fundamental commitment to the separation of church and state.

The Framers were not anti-religion. They understood that religion could help to nurture the public morality necessary to a self-governing society. But religion was to be fundamentally private. It was for the individual. It was not to intrude unduly into the political sphere.

But here's the rub: From a strictly legal perspective, it is next to impossible for courts to enforce the separation of church and state in the context of laws like Proposition 8. When a law does not directly restrict religious activity or expressly endorse religious expression, it is exceedingly difficult for courts to sort out the "real" motivations behind the law. As a consequence, courts are loath to invalidate laws on the ground that they enact a particular religious faith.

This does not end the inquiry, however. Courts also have difficulty in dealing with laws that do not expressly discriminate on the basis of race or religion or gender, but that were motivated by racial, religious or gender prejudice. But we know - as an essential part of our national character - that we as citizens should not support laws because they advance our discriminatory biases about race, religion, and gender. We know that it is un-American for us to enact laws because they implement our prejudices. We know that it is our responsibility to be tolerant, self-critical and introspective about our own values and beliefs and to strive to achieve our highest national aspirations.

The separation of church and state is one of those aspirations. Indeed, regardless of whether courts can intervene in this context, it is as un-American to violate the separation of church and state by using the power of the state to impose our religious beliefs on others as it is to use the power of the state to impose our discriminatory views of race, religion or gender on others.

This is the fundamental point that the religious advocates of Proposition 8 fail to comprehend. Like other citizens, they are free in our society to support laws because they believe those laws serve legitimate ends, including such values as tradition, general conceptions of morality, and family stability. But they are not free - not if they are to act as faithful American citizens - to impose their religious views on others. That is, quite simply, un-American.

This is not to say that individuals cannot attempt to persuade others freely to embrace and to act in accord with their religious beliefs. The First Amendment gives us virtually absolute protection to preach, proselytize and evangelize. But the fundamental point about religious liberty in the United States is that it is private. Christian Evangelicals have every right to try to persuade others to accept and abide by their beliefs. But they have no right - indeed, they violate the very spirit of the American Constitution - when they attempt to conscript the authority of the state to compel those who do not share their religious beliefs to act as if they do.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I figure I would give you a break from
my seriousness, and post some of the
other things going on.
I completely skipped Halloween because
of my distractions. So I will post on that.

I have not been to a haunted house in
ages. Heather was extremely nice to attempt
to plan an outing for all the bloggers.
And after numerous emails, trying to
get a time and date to work for everyone
(seriously I think these emails spanned
a month, and more emails than I could
count), it ended up just being me and Heather.

We went to the haunted house at This is Place
State Park. I have never been up there, but it
was pretty cool. I unfortunately wore heels,
because Heather always complains about how
tall she is. So I wanted to make her feel better.
I regretted it shortly thereafter. It was an outdoor
haunted house and I was quite wobbly. This was only
made worse by Heather being quite the wuss, and as she
was scared, she proceeded to tear my arm off.
(I call you a wuss with the utmost amount
of respect and love my dear Heather)

The first house we went into was the best.
Only because Heather managed to scream at every
turn. I knew that Holly was the screamer, but
much to my delight, Heather was just as bad.
I caught on to this, and without her knowing at
first, I recorded her numerous screams.
Unfortunately, she found out, and I missed
the majority of the good ones in the beginning.
But here are two. (Heather thought she might
have gotten away with me not posting this.
Muahahahaha)

This was a surprisingly long trail. The place was
pretty amazing. There were tons of old houses and
mansions. We managed to spend a good half hour
in a tiny maze. I still don't know how we missed
the exit. And to top it all off, there was
a headless horseman riding horse back along
one of the trails. A real effing horse galloping
pretty damn fast. I managed to cuss extremely loud
when it came. Something a long the lines of
"HOLY SHIT! That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!"

We spent a good amount of time trying to figure out
how to take a picture of both of us together
(I think it was about 10 or so).

I also told Heather I would not post her funny face
picture. You see, Heather wants so badly to make
cute funny faces. She thinks for some reason I have mastered
this art (I do not know why). But I like Heather's funny
face in this one.

And, my advice Heather. Practice in the mirror.
Although some people are just born with funny faces (in my case)
Be extremely thankful that you were born with the kind
of face you can't practice. And that is a beautiful face.

Soooo Sappy! (but very true)

In the end, I was glad we still both went after
everyone managed to bail.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Maybe eventually I can get back to reporting onthe happenings of my life. But right now, mylife seems tiny and meaningless. If you do not

enjoy reading about these issues, please feel free to

take a break from my blog. Because honestly, this is what

consumes me in my life right now. And I use my blog

to write not only about what I do, but how I feel.

And this is me, take it or leave it.

I have spokenquite a bit on this issue, and I probably sounduniformed and possibly uneducated.But there are people who come along andtake my breath away. Keith Olbermann hasmanaged to put into words what I could neverimagine to do on my own.